Walkway Art: Momentum Sculpture

A modern art installation made of recycled steel pays tribute to the Walkway Over the Hudson

By Robin Miniter

Published: 08/13/2010

Photograph by Franc Palaia

Recently unveiled on the lawn of the Cunneen-Hackett Art Center in Poughkeepsie, Michael Ciccone’s latest sculpture, Momentum, is testament to the idea that “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” A Saugerties resident, Ciccone — steelworker by day and artist by night — worked on last year’s reincarnation of the Poughkeepsie Railway Bridge into the Walkway Over the Hudson. Since then, he has been crafting a series of sculptures using the discarded copper and steel from the 122-year-old structure. Paying homage to his job at hand, Ciccone’s piece recalls an old-fashioned locomotive with churning wheels and plumes of smoke. “This steel is iconic in industrial history,” he says, “No one else will ever see it again.”

The initial creation process was no easy feat — Ciccone had to cut the metal while dangling from a safety line, blowtorch in hand, more than 200 feet above the surging Hudson. In the future, he hopes to see the piece go back home to the Walkway; plans are in the works to have the sculpture permanently installed at the Poughkeepsie entrance to the new linear park. “Building the steel into modern art, for me, not only preserves the history of the bridge,” he says, “but it adds to the future.”